Hello

9 December 2016

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

ADM 2012: The first six months

We're halfway through 2012: it's time for our regular look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year

Is noise making a comeback? We ask because over the years we've
been putting together our regular check-ups on what's attracting
the most critical acclaim, we can't recall a top 10 that's been so,
well, noisy ...

Previous lists have been dominated by the likes of Bon Iver,
Gillian Welch, Anaïs Mitchell and their ilk, with only occasional
appearances by guitar terrorists such as doom drone merchants
Earth.

We've certainly never seen a top 10 that featured so many acts to
whom the label "hardcore" could be applied, whether under the guise
of punk, rap or noise rock.

While diehard dubstep aficionados might argue that Burial has
mellowed somewhat since his early output, only three albums - those
from Fiona Apple, Chromatics and John Talabot - offer any real
respite from aural assault, with the former being the one release
that straddles both the critical rankings and the best-seller
charts.

The two notable names to have been eclipsed since our quarter-year
check-up three months ago are Leonard Cohen and Anaïs Mitchell,
both of whose albums subsequently attracted reactions that were not
quite as unanimously enthusiastic as the first reviews.

With the absence of Mitchell and the disappearance of other early
contenders such as the Sharon Van Etten album, it is tempting
to speculate on a downturn in the indie folk field, this being a
genre that has been a staple in every one of our previous
lists.

However, having mooted on the evidence of our end-of-2011 lists
that the days of guitar-toting rock bands appeared to be drawing to
an end, maybe we won't bother. There'll be an indie folk explosion
along before you can say Father John Misty.

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8.5

Fiona Apple

The Idler Wheel...

Succeeds in creating a singular world more daring than any of
Apple's previous records and one of the most daring pop records in
recent history